


Life Choices

by LizabethSTucker



Category: Emergency!
Genre: F/M, Gen, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-11
Updated: 2012-01-11
Packaged: 2017-10-29 09:10:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/318210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LizabethSTucker/pseuds/LizabethSTucker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Johnny and Roy wonder about their choices in life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Two men were standing by the lake, fishing poles lightly held. One, wearing a slightly too small straw cowboy hat over his light brown hair, was listening to soft sounds of the breeze in the trees. The other man, his dark hair tousled, sighed deeply. He turned his head to his friend, pulling his shades down on his nose and peering over the top.

"Do you ever think of the future, Roy?"

"The future? In what way?"

"I don't know. Like, how long will you be a firefighter, what will you do if...if anything happened to you and you couldn't do the job any more."

"Johnny, what brought this on?"

"I've been...I don't know...thinking about me, about us, about where I want to be in 10 years."

"Johnny?"

John Gage shrugged. "Okay, it was something Michelle said the other night. Right before we finished out last shift."

"Michelle? She's the nurse from pediatrics, right?" Roy asked.

Johnny nodded. "Yeah. You know we've been dating for a while now and I wanted to say goodbye before this trip. So she just suddenly asked what I would do if I got hurt and couldn't do the job any longer. Did I want to 'play' at fireman forever?"

"That's a little, I don't know, harsh, isn't it?"

"I thought so." Johnny reeled his line in and strolled to where the Rover was parked in the shade, putting the rod in the back. "But, then I got to thinking, what do I want to do with my life?"

Roy followed his friend, sitting on the vehicle's back bumper. "And what did you decide?"

Johnny's crooked grin appeared. "I want exactly what I have, a job I love, people I can trust to work with, and a chance to help people when they most need it."

Roy smiled in answer. "Sounds good to me."

"Wanna beer?"

"Yeah, that sounds great."

They sipped at their beers for a while, munching out of Johnny's bag of chips.

"So, where do you want to be in 10 years?" Johnny asked.

"Well, I don't know. I want to take the engineer's exam again. You know that."

"What about being a captain?"

"A captain?" Roy blew air out between his pursed lips. "I...I've never thought that far ahead."

"So think."

"I don't know, Johnny. Maybe."

"Because you'd make a great captain, partner."

"Really?"

"Yeah, you would. Nah, you will."

"What about you? Engineer? Captain?"

Johnny snorted. "Can't you just see the brass if I took the captain's exam and passed?"

Roy grinned, his blue eyes sparkling. "You'd be a hell of a captain, Junior."

"Yeah, right."

"I mean it. You've got the knowledge, the instincts, you can talk to anyone about anything, you have a great touch with the victims. Why wouldn't you make a great captain?"

Johnny blushed at the compliments, knowing that Roy didn't give them lightly. "Th-thanks, Roy."

"You're welcome."

To change the subject and recover his composure, Johnny nudged Roy with his shoulder. "Feel like some chili?"

"Think Blaine might be hungry?"

"I think Blaine was born hungry!" Johnny said in reference to the Santa Rosa County Sheriff, a man that had become a good friend after a most memorable fishing trip some time earlier.

Roy slapped his partner on the back. "Sounds good. You know what I always say..."

"Chili today, hot tamale!" the men chorused.


	2. Chapter 2

Roy was sitting in his recliner, blindly staring at the television, when two arms reached around him for a gentle hug.

"What's wrong, honey?" Joanne DeSoto asked her husband.

"Nothing," he replied with a half-hearted shrug.

"Uh huh, sure." She moved around until she could sit on his lap, softly kissing him on the lips. "You've been distracted since you and Johnny returned from your fishing trip. Did something happen?"

"Not really. Johnny was talking about things and it got me thinking."

"And what would your partner say that would have you so lost in thought?"

"You know how he's been dating Michelle Parks?"

"The baby nurse?"

"Yeah," Roy leaned back, settling his petite wife more comfortably by his side. "Well, she said something to him that got him thinking about his future. And it has me doing the same."

Joanne could tell this was bothering her beloved husband, so she refrained from teasing remarks about Johnny and thinking.

Roy sighed. "I wondered. Do you wish that I'd gone into another line of work?"

Joanne hesitated, feeling her husband's body tense. "There are days when I worry about you more than normally, when I wonder what life would've been like if you'd have become an accountant or a doctor."

"So you would rather I quit?"

"No, Roy, I didn't say that," she replied, smoothing his furrowed brow. "I think everyone wonders about the path not taken. Surely you've thought about it."

He shrugged again. "Yeah, sometimes. When we've been on a bad brushfire, when it seems like nothing is going right, it might cross my mind."

She snuggled even closer, nibbling on his neck. "Whenever I feel that way, all I have to do is look at those pictures over there." She pointed to the wall above the television.

Roy began to smile as he looked at the gallery of personal photographs. There was one of him when he graduated from the Fire Academy. Another with his hand being shaken by the Chief after completing the first paramedic class. The third was of he and Johnny, big grins on their faces, just returned from delivering their first set of triplets. The last photograph was of the whole station, taken shortly after Captain Stanley had arrived.

"In every single picture, you are smiling. I see the delight, the joy that you have in what you do. I know the gratitude of the people you help, even if sometimes they forget to say it. Be honest, hon, you wouldn't be happy doing anything else, would you?"

He brushed her currently blond hair back from her face. "You know me so well, don't you?"

"I certainly hope so, after all these years. I told you once before, as long as you're the breadwinner in this family, you pick what you want to do. And firefighting is it."

"Thanks, Jo." Roy pulled her up, sliding her against his body. Once her lips were in reach, he began to kiss his wife, glad that the children were still in school. "And if I had a nine to five job, we wouldn't have the opportunity to do this sort of thing without the kids around."

"There is that, Mr. DeSoto, there is that."

(January 2005)


End file.
